The Berserker

Few words about it first. I figured that instead of just posting the build I’d simply go over the tree feat by feat and explain them a bit and say a few words about why to take or not to take the feat in question. This way it will be more useful not only for the berserkers, but also for the people that want to learn more about berserkers, their strenghts and weaknesses and also what to expect when facing one. For those who want to skip the babbling and see the feat build that I’m using just skip to the bottom of this post. I’ll post a link there.

The berserker tree offers a great deal of survivability due to the multiple crowd control ablities it provides. Also provides nice damage even though the reaver tree supposedly offers a much better burst damage. Does not have a so called “I win” -button, which is the reason why majority of barbarians are running for the reaver tree and CoS nowadays. I personally like to feel like I’ve been in a battle instead of just one shotting my opponents. Wheres the fun in that anyway? All in all a very nice tree with tricks for all kinds of situations.

The Berserker Tree Feats

Top to bottom, left to right:

Blood Rage – Grants the barbarian the Blood Rage Stance which increases damage inflicted and enemy attacks have a chance of increasing the barbarian’s rate of Health regeneration and evasion chance. The health effect can be applied three times.

Required to advance obviously. When max procced gives a really nice HP Regen rate and a small evasion boost for better survivability. Maxed 5/5

Great Weapons Master – Increases the damage done by two-handed edged and two-handed blunt weapons.

Doesn’t need much explaining. More damage is always good for a DPS class. Also scales with level. Maxed 5/5

Atrocity – Increases the damage done by the barbarians butcher combos.

Butcher is one of the berserkers two low cool down damage combos and as a berserker you will be using it alot. Maxed 5/5

Shock and Awe – Reduces the reuse time for Stunning Punch and Clobber combos.

Extremely important talent for any berserker to max out. When maxed out it reduces the cooldowns of both Clobber and Stunning Punch for well over 10 seconds. Maxed 3/3

Staggering Punch – Improves the Stunning Punch combos by adding an effect that also reduces the victims movement speed.

This feat seems a bit broken at the moment. Sure it snares the opponent for a while, but the snare starts when you perform the combo and lasts less than the stun from the combo. Only useful if the enemy resists the stun and catches the snare. Of course it is possible I missed something when testing it but for now it doesn’t seem too useful at all. Still 1/3 (I guess I’m keeping up my hopes of it getting fixed ^^)

Reverse Swing vs Grisly Wounds – Augments the Staggering Blow combo by increasing the damage the barbarian inflicts. VS The barbarian augments the Butcher combos with their own inborn brutality, adding more damage over time.

Basically it’s a choice between direct damage and damage over time. When maxed Reverse Swing gives a short buff that increases the berserkers damage by 10%. The buff lasts long enough to land a combo or maybe a couple of instants. This can mean significantly more damage than what Butcher’s rather weak DoT would cause even with this upgrade. I didn’t have points for both so I chose to go for Reverse Swing instead of Grisly wounds. Reverse Swing maxed 5/5

Paralysis – Adds a brief root effect, preventing the target from moving, to the barbarian’s Clobber combo.

So much for only one point. Roots the enemy for a while so you can deal damage to him/her or perhaps throw a stun so the enemy can’t escape. Many people don’t know about this feat and fail to notice it on their debuff bar when under it’s effect and therefore try to run away after getting clobbered instead of doing something useful like active blocking or fighting back. Gives you a few free punches at least. ^^ Definitely maxed 1/1

Insanity – Permanently increases the barbarian’s resistance to fear effects.

Grants passive fear resistance. No idea about it’s numbers, but I’ve been feared lots even with this feat maxed. It is required for getting Unstable Mind though. So maxed 3/3

No Escape – Grants an ability that enables the barbarian to throw their weapon, impaling their enemy, cause massive damage that lingers for a short time and also stuns the victim. This ability disarms the barbarian for a short time.

The damage this ability causes is quite massive. It stuns the enemy and does damage over time for the stun’s duration. There are many many situations in which this ability will come in handy. I’ve used it for escaping, as a finisher, occasionally one shotting mobs without effort and even in the middle of a 1v1 PvP situation when running out of stamina to stun the opponent for a while so my stamina pot can do it’s job while me running about unharmed. Maxed 1/1

Combo Earth Shatter – This mighty combo stuns all foes in close vicinity.

360 degree aoe stun. Need I say more? Maxed 1/1

Finishing Blow – Grants the barbarian a charge ability available after they knock back an enemy. Their charge causes severe damage but a high stamina cost and long reuse time.

Regardless of the description takes no stamina at all. This ability does NOT break a combo so it is best used by using knockback, charging up a combo up to the last hit, finishing blow and finally the combo finisher. That’s some nice burst damage right there. Throw in some instants like decapitation right after and you will be exploding damage all over your enemy. Scales 1 point = 2x damage, 2 = 3x, 3 = 4x. Maxed 3/3

Arcane Marauder – When hit by spell damage the barbarian gains natural health regeneration and drains mana from enemies around them.

To be honest I didn’t see this as a very useful feat to begin with and therefore I don’t have personal experience of it. But from what I’ve heard I was absolutely correct. 0/5

Unstable Mind – Grants the barbarian an ability which removes all stun, snare and root effects and gives them immunity for a short period of time.

Great ability indeed. I personally use this ability only to break off stuns and such. Not too much for the immunity. Even when maxed the duration of the immunity is under 10 seconds. But even with only one point invested in it you can break a stun, snare, root or a fear effect with a 100% rate. Therefore 1/3

Hammer and Anvil – Enhances the Stunning Punch combo by increasing the damage it inflicts.

Doesn’t seem much earlier in the game but really starts to shine at higher levels. Especially if the left side is unshielded when using Stunning Punch. Also required to get to Comatose. Maxed 5/5

Fearsome Agility – When hit in combat there is a chance to gain a short evade buff. This can stack up to 5 times.

A really low procrate. I’ve never had it proc more than three times in a fight. When maxed adds 1% evasion for each proc. I have it maxed at the moment, but this is one of the first things I’ll be changing when I get around to respeccing again. Have some other ideas for the 5 points already. Maxed 5/5 (For now)

Rampage – When hit in combat you will occasionally damage every enemy around you for a small amount.

Nothing special. The damage is about 150 a proc at level 80 which is not too noticeable especially because it doesn’t really proc that often. Requirement to advance down on the tree though. Therefore maxed 5/5

Comatose – Enhances Stunning Punch combo by increasing the amount of time the victim is stunned for.

The longer they are stunned the less damage they can deal to you, right? ^^ Maxed 2/2

Rampaging Horde & Welcoming Death – Grants an ability that increases the damage inflicted upon foes based on the number of friendly barbarian’s in the range. Maximum number counted is 10. & Grants an ability that increases the damage inflicted by the barbarian’s attacks based on the number of dead foes nearby, up to a maximum number of 10.

No personal experience from either one but sounds to me like these abilities are way too situation specific that they will be hardly of any use. Ignored for now. 0/5 0/5

Combo Scatter Foes – Grants the barbarian a combo that will knock back all foes in a wide cone in front of them.

Another knock back with great damage and a quite massive are of effect. The damage is somewhere around the damage of Decapitation if I recall correctly. Maxed 3/3

Combo Decapitation – Grants the barbarian a swift combo that inflicts massive damage and increases the chance of a fatality. This combo has a long reuse time.

Under rated feat in my opinion. Sure, it doesn’t live up to the promises of “Massive damage”, but it is an instant combo. Nice way to build burst damage with KB, finishing blow, combo, decap. Though the cooldown should be less as it doesn’t deal the massive damage that it promises. Maxed 5/5

Thirst For Blood – Grants an ability that drives the fellowship in to a wild bloodlust. Attacking or being attacked can trigger a damage bonus effect and multiple applications of this effect eventually boosts health and stamina regeneration.

The image shows max procced (5) TfB at level 80. When turned on everyone in your group receives it and you have 15 seconds to make it proc before it vanishes. Thank god the proc rate is really good though. Probably easiest to proc with white swings that actually hit something; possibly while building up combos. The duration of the effect is unfortunately only 10 seconds. Hopefully gets boosted in the future patches. No problems with the cooldown though as it is only around 2 minutes. Maxed 1/1

Feats From the General Tree

Excellent Balance – Grants the rogue an ability which makes them immune to being knocked back in combat. Additional feat points increase the duration and shortens the refresh time.

Obviously required to advance, but also really useful. When maxed the duration is 15 seconds and the cooldown is 30 seconds; so you can have it on 50% of the time. Use it as much as possible in PvP situations. Maxed 5/5

Second Wind – Grants a new special ability that gives a short duration but substantial stamina boost. Takes a moderate time to refresh.

A very important feat for a berserker as you will be eating your stamina bar for breakfast and stamina pots sometimes just aren’t enough. A berserker without stamina is a dead berserker. I strongly suggest investing points in the Endurance feat as well even though I didn’t yet do it myself. The cooldown with nothing invested in Endurance is 10 whole minutes. 1/1

Quick Recovery – The rogue instantly recovers stamina after being knocked back in melee.

No matter how much excellent balance you use you will inevitably get knocked back at some point. With this nice feat you will atleast get some stamina out of it. 1/1

Natural Protection VS Toughness – Increases the rogue’s elemental/physical defense ratings.

I didn’t have that much points left for the general tree so I decided to only pick the stuff that I really needed and therefore only wanted to use 5 points in the tier 2 feats. This left me with 3 points to distribute to Toughness or Natural protection. In other words Physical resistances vs Elemental resistances. I feel like soldiers give us berserkers more trouble than mages currently so I went for Toughness. 3/5 in Toughness

Acrobat – Increases the rogue’s evasion rating.

I keep changing my mind about this feat constantly. But right now I see it as a decent feat. Gives 1% evasion for each point invested. Some extra survivability never hurt anyone except my enemies. Which is a good thing, right? Maxed 3/3

Escape Artist – Grants the rogue an ability which gives them a substantial chance to escape snares that slow movement or root effects that prevent movement.

A stationary berserker is a dead berserker. Maxed 3/3

Agile Mind – Grants a special ability which gives the rogue a substantial chance of escaping fear or charm effects.

This feat is a complete mystery to me at the moment. It doesn’t show up as an ability I can use, but as a 24 hour buff that is on me all the time. Does this mean it’s a passive resistance? or maybe it has a chance to kill the fear or charm effect earlier than normally? No idea at the moment. Still I’m hoping it works in some mysterious way and therefore maxed 3/3.

Heres the link to the feats as I promised: CLICK ME

A Few Tips for Playing as a Bersker or Against One

When playing as a berserker one of the most important things is to keep moving. You definitely aint a tank and your HP is very limited. If you try to face a soldier class face to face you will get your ass handed to you very quickly. You have the advantage against all one handed weapon wielders in circle strafing as your hit cone is larger than theirs. So keep circle strafing around those tanks as long as they cant hit you. If the tank has some skills however he will be able to hit you and at that point you should step back and only step back in when you’ve got a combo charged up to it’s finisher. Unpredictable movement is the key. The tanks white swings will hurt you more than your white swings can hurt them.

As a tank if you’re getting circled around and cant seem to hit the barbarian, you can simply back up to a wall. If you can hit em then give them no quarter. Keep incessantly attacking and give them no breathing room. If you let them step in and out whenever they please you will be in trouble. If you got CC use them. Anything you can do to stop their movement is always good.

For casters. Try to keep the distance and CC them before they CC you. This is the only way to survive the starter combination of a berserker really. If you by some miracle survive it then do whatever you can, CC, DD, run away or whatever else you see fit. You will have about til your stun and knock back immunities wear off and they can do it all over again.

This might seem like I’m just being captain obvious to some people, but from what I’ve seen people just can’t figure out this stuff unless told. Hope this helps someone atleast a little bit. This build is built around my playstyle and it works just perfect for that.

As a bonus today a little vid I made showing off one of the two 2handed blunt fatalities that become available at level 80:

Oh the brutality!

- Odefi